National Book Award for Poetry

The National Book Award for Poetry is one of four annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers".[1] The panelists are five "writers who are known to be doing great work in their genre or field".[2]

The category Poetry was established in 1950 and has been annual except for no award 1985 to 1990.[3]

The award recognizes one book written by a US citizen and published in the US from December 1 to November 30. The National Book Foundation accepts nominations from publishers until June 15, requires mailing nominated books to the panelists by August 1, and announces five finalists in October. The winner is announced on the day of the final ceremony in November. The award is $10,000 and a bronze sculpture; other finalists get $1000, a medal, and a citation written by the panel.[4]

The Poetry award and many others were eliminated from the program when it was revamped in 1984. It was restored in 1991, now for current-year publications, with a standard five finalists announced a few weeks prior to the main event.

^ ab"National Book Awards – 1950". NBF. Retrieved 2012-02-25.
(With essays by Neil Baldwin and Ross Gay from the Awards 50-year print publication(?) and 60-year anniversary blog. Baldwin covers the award-sharing book: "The edition of the Selected Poems brought out in 1949 has of necessity over the past half-century been emended and expanded many times. ...")

^At the first awards dinner in the currently recognized series, there were five honorable mentions announced in the non-fiction category only.
• "Book Publishers Make 3 Awards: ... Gold Plaques", The New York Times, March 17, 1950, page 21.